MLB.com's Jane Lee blogs about the Oakland A's

Opening Series finale: A’s vs. Mariners

Situational hitting gave the A’s some trouble last night, as they went just 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position. It’s a facet of the game manager Bob Melvin is really stressing this year, especially given the makeup of the team and the overall lack of power, compared to other teams.

“It’s not like we played poorly,” he said. “We made some nice plays and, at times, I thought we had some nice at-bats. We hit some balls hard that could have ended the game, but it was frustrating in that we could have scored some more runs than we did. But you have to put that away and play for today.”

The A’s have lost eight straight season openers, but the good news is that they’ve followed five of the previous seven defeats with a win.

Today’s lineup is a bit different, with just two lefties in there against Seattle southpaw Jason Vargas. Take a look:

Melvin says the first-base job is still a three-man race between Ka’aihue, Brandon Allen and Daric Barton and, though he could potentially carry two first baseman, he noted Donaldson could also play first during the season. It’s not the easiest of decisions, especially since both Allen and Ka’aihue are out of options. He’s also been getting good reports on Barton from Arizona.

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

1 Comment

With the evil Rangers and Angels in the AL West, I think Oakland and Seattle are in a solid race for third place. Neither 25 man squad can compete with the Texas-LA axis. Battling for third will be a tight race. That is the only way I can see the division this year. Let the battle renew in Oakland.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.